Trojan horse headteacher 'allowed pupils to be put in stress positions'
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Version 0 of 1. The former headteacher of an academy at the centre of the Trojan horse scandal is alleged to have allowed pupils to be placed in stress positions as a punishment, a misconduct panel has heard. Monsoor “Moz” Hussain is facing allegations alongside four other former senior Park View academy staff, including executive headteacher Lindsey Clark. Also accused are Hardeep Saini, the former headteacher of sister school Golden Hillock; Razwan Faraz, the former deputy headteacher of another linked school, Nansen Primary; and Arshad Hussain, who was an assistant headteacher at Park View in Alum Rock, Birmingham. All are accused of unacceptable professional conduct but are facing different allegations being heard by a National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) panel. Hussain is said to have allowed pupils to be subjected to unusual, excessive and disproportionate punishments, including being made to stand in the rain, stare at bushes or sit on floor tiles. Saini is alleged to have advised a teacher, at the time under police investigation for having “extreme pornography” on their mobile phone, “to throw his phone in the canal to make sure there was no problem”. He is also claimed to have said “that’s what we believe” in response to a complaint made by a Park View pupil about being taught by a gay teacher. The ex-head is further accused of failing to take action when another teacher is said to have claimed “we have the true religion”. Faraz is alleged to have used the word “kuffars”, in reference to non-Muslims, “in a derogatory manner”. He is also alleged to have told Park View pupils in or around May 2013: “Just think, you could be like those poor innocent people in Guantanamo Bay without the opportunity to study.” Related: Trojan horse teachers 'gave pupils handout saying wives cannot refuse sex' Faraz is also accused of submitting an “inaccurate, misleading and dishonest” statement, when he denied all knowledge of the WhatsApp social media group the Park View Brotherhood, which contained messages suggesting the killing of Lee Rigby and the Boston Marathon bombing were faked. The five face a common allegation that they agreed to the inclusion of “an undue amount of religious influence in the education of the pupils” at Park View, and – for some of the respondents – its sister schools. The NCTL also alleges the former teachers applied “improper pressure” on staff who were unsympathetic to their aims, appointed staff sympathetic to their cause, and encouraged pupils to pray in school by – among other methods – broadcasting a call to prayer on Park View’s loudspeakers. The hearing in Coventry, which is scheduled to last until December, may hear over the coming weeks from former Park View pupils, the panel was told on Monday. The teachers deny the allegations. Park View was at the centre of accusations of an alleged plot by hardline Muslims to take over several schools in Birmingham. The plot, detailed in an anonymous letter, triggered four official investigations and resulted in five schools being put into special measures by Ofsted. Among those downgraded by inspectors was the previously outstanding Park View academy, Nansen primary and Golden Hillock, which were all run by the Park View Educational Trust. The trust’s former chairman, Tahir Alam, is thought to have become the first person barred from involvement in the management of independent schools last month, as a result of new powers granted to the education secretary. Park View has since been taken over and renamed Rockwood academy. |